The War at Home: Minnesota During the Great War, 1914–1920

by Greg Gaut

Exploring Minnesota’s history from the beginning of the European war in 1914 through the 1920 election provides a unique vantage point from which to assess the war’s impact on American society.

Americans went to war in 1917 not only against Germany but also against each other.  The controversial decision to send an army to France came during a contentious time when farmers and workers challenged the wealthy, African Americans struggled against Jim Crow and lynchings, women campaigned for suffrage, and millions crusaded against alcohol.  In The War at Home, historian Greg Gaut focuses on the lives of individual Minnesotans to tell the dramatic story of this period, when the North Star State experienced bitter polarization, nativism, flagrant disregard for democratic norms, and intense, occasionally violent, confrontations. 


The Minnesota Commission of Public Safety ruled the state with an iron hand during the war. Led by John F. McGee, the commission pursued a “loyalty” campaign against trade unions, the Nonpartisan League, the Socialist Party, and the Industrial Workers of the World. McGee’s most prominent adversary was Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., whom the Nonpartisan League nominated to challenge the governor in the fiercely contested 1918 primary. 

Although Minnesota’s home front experience was the product of a particular confluence of events and personalities, it raises issues about how democracy can give way to authoritarianism when economic inequality, anti-immigrant nationalism, and racism rule the day.

400 pages, Paperback

Published March 4, 2025

Reviews

[Steve Schild]

Greg Gaut has written an important book, eminently readable and richly detailed. Even readers already well informed about WWI will learn something new. It’s one of those books you can open to any page and be immediately engaged. Gaut’s scholarship extends into Minnesota’s many nooks and crannies, major cities, tiny hamlets, and everything in between. Most important, this book shows us who and what we were during one of the most repressive periods in the nation’s history.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Gaut's history reminds us that Minnesota, but more broadly this country, has had other times of division and discord. The extensive research ties together several factors, yet is written in a readable, conversational style. The ill effects of concentrating power in the hands of a few with the resultant bigotry, coercion, and unfairness is well illustrated. A clearly cautionary note for our times..

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to learn about tumultuous times in Minnesota around the time of the Great War, Gaut's book has to be the prime resource. He spent about ten years writing this but I can understand why. The research is detailed, meticulous, and includes many statewide incidents and events. One might think that German immigrants might have been the main source for contention, but generally they were for the war but did not want to fight against their relatives back in Germany. They and others also objected to the Selective Service. But, there were numerous other issues. The Minnesota Commission of Public Safety (MCPS) was formed and went well beyond it's original purpose. It was led and supported by the wealthy business and industry scions in Minnesota especially those who led the milling industry. Loyalty was a huge issue as in "If you aren't for us, you are against us." Immigrants besides those of German heritage were scapegoats. Farmers were not doing well with commodity prices and so were interested in the Non-Partisan League (NPL) with its origins in North Dakota. There the effort succeeded in getting support but in Minnesota, it gained the reputation of being socialist. Up to this point, farmers had not cooperated with labor but their common interests developed and eventually led to the Farmer Laborer political movement after the war. Farmers were also at odds with town businessmen. MCPS formed local militia including the Home Front to take the place of departing National Guard units. They also had a mobile corp of volunteers who would use their touring cars to get enforcers to locations where there might be potential unrest. So what kinds of "unrest?" NPL candidates including Charles Lindbergh (who was running in the Republican primary for governor) were sometimes not welcome to campaign. So a city or county might ban them from appearing. Speeches criticizing President Wilson and the decision to go to war were suspect. Any peace movements were viewed with suspicion. Violence was not uncommon. Blacks were attempting to gain more leadership in the military which was a struggle as often black units were led by white officers. Native Americans were viewed as "equal" to whites and were drafted. Women's suffrage movements were sometimes at odds with one another. One group supported the war effort and thought that would gain favor with Wilson who still had not come out in support of women voting. Another group said while the war was supposedly to "make the world safe for democracy," why don't we have democracy for women at home? There was a particular confluence of movements, events, and opinions in Minnesota possibly unlike most other parts of the country. Minnesota shockingly came as close to martial law without actually declaring it. Tumultuous times indeed. Gaut ends the book with a section on the main players and what happened to them after the war. He also has a short chapter with observations relevant to today's political and social climate. Excellent Minnesota history book.

[Mary Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a currently necessary read! It applies to Minnesota history before and during WWI during a time of a great misuse of state power.

The Minnesota legislature and MN Governor Burquist delegated immense power to the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety and its de facto leader, former Judge John F. McGee. He managed war readiness and loyalty to the war effort. Because of McGee’s leadership there was no room for disagreement about who was ready and who was loyal. Those thought to be disloyal were subject to loss of free speech, barbaric tarring and feathering and torture. Election interference was even committed against the Nonpartisan League which after the war evolved into the farmer wing of the Farmer Labor Party.

The enormous amount of research and information revealed by the author, Dr. Greg Gaut, a retired history professor, shouldn’t have been so long ignored. This discouraging time in Minnesota history needs to be fully understood in light of today’s national politics: how easily power can be seized and the courage and tenacity it takes to confront abuse of power. Not forgotten is the influence of those who resisted, including Congressman Charles Lindberg Sr, father of the famous aviator, and James Manahan a MN house delegate and lawyer defending farmers and the Nonpartisan League

Gaut’s writing is very compelling, re-introducing MN historical figures in the context of the time. He is sometimes slightly sarcastic, sometimes empathic, describing “Postwar Europe as a continent of mourners”. His conversational tone allows easy access to the information.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important book. Not only is The War at Home a major contribution to Minnesota history, but it’s important for anyone wishing to gain context on our current era.

During the era leading up to and during World War I, a legislatively appointed body consisting of the governor and attorney general, but mostly of prominent businessmen, was given free reign to enforce patriotism by the citizenry as well as, among other questionable actions, conduct government-sanctioned vigilantism and “slacker raids” of men who did not register for the draft. The Minnesota Commission on Public Safety also used wartime as a pretext to carry out their pre-existing agenda to repress civil liberties and crack down on radical laborers and farmers at a time when their influence was ascendant.

Author Greg Gaut marshals a mountain of source material into a (justifiably) detailed, yet readable text. The language is straightforward, with wry asides and brief contextualizing passages to make The War at Home much more than a dry recitation of facts, adding up to a chilling portrait of repression that we can learn from today

[Jeff Goldthorpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is valuable for its rich context, explaining the odd hostilities between Minnesotans at the time: tar and feathering, arrests for exercising free speech, anti-union obsessions, and bizarre hatred of “Huns,” as Germans and German-Americans were then called, all are more comprehensible through the lense of war-time mobilization for a war that can still not be justified a hundred years later.  On the other hand, Gaut suggests that the rise of Minnesota’s Farmer Labor Party (later merged with Democrats) was based on the resilience of the agrarian and labor union radicals who were so unpopular and embattled during the brief American participation in the war (1917-1918). I especially enjoyed the balance of its broad historical sweep and its descriptions of key personalities in each chapter, leading the reader to follow their contrasting fates in later years; who was exonerated, or punished, or tossed aside, or thrown under the bus. The ending is brilliant and moving.

[Ann Jonas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a little difficult to get through at times, especially at the beginning, with trying to remember who's who and what's what. But I think it's a VERY informative and important book -- and well-researched -- about Minnesota and all the shenanigans that took place leading up to and during WWI. I highly recommend!

[Alissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thorough and thought provoking narrative about life in Minnesota during the First World War. The author was very detailed in describing accounts of events and definitely did tons of research in order to write this book.